Tuesday, 1 December 2015

It's December and we know that everyone is saying: “Wah, December already. The year just flew by, didn't it?”

It's just a perception. Time, of course, cannot move faster or slower. We are, after all, blessed with the same amount of it daily. But it is what we do with our time that is different.

My ex-manager when I was in BHP Billiton, Greg Forknall once told me that " When you too busy raising a family, you don't have time to catch-up with friends. Suddenly, you realised that time flew so fast when you suddenly bump into them again when all your children grown up and both you are old"

Which is true, when I bump into someone I knew, we may exchange a few pleasantries, and then say that diplomatic phrase, “Let's catch up one of these days”. The phase that without specifying the time, you can be sure the day will never come.

Like most people working and living in the Kuala Lumpur, my schedule is often full. You have probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “So busy.” “Super busy.” It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint. But whether it is full by choice or by circumstances, it surely cannot be so inflexible that it is unable to accommodate any unexpected appointment.

Some of us are so busy that even when a friend is not well, we have to weigh other factors first before deciding if we can spare the time to visit.

The problem, then, is less how much time people have than how they see it. Ever since a clock was first used to synchronise labour in the 18th century, time has been understood in relation to money. Once hours are financially quantified, people worry more about wasting, saving or using them profitably. When economies grow and incomes rise, everyone’s time becomes more valuable. And the more valuable something becomes, the scarcer it seems.

We are blessed with the same 24 hours in a day, yet our lives can all be so different depending on how we use those precious hours.'The choices we make and the priorities we set determine the busyness of our lives.